And then, she hired Martin Campbell the director to try and revive the franchise - which he managed to do especially in Casino Royale, which was a commercial success and really unearthed the English-speaking mainstream public to Eva Green who went onto substantial successes in more movies.
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| 'I just know you guys are going to f* it up!' |
But then - and for me you can see the signs already beginning to creep in in Casino Royale when someone is placing various policy pressures onto the director - the whole enterprise goes badly downhill in a very tragic way when the entire Bond 'canon,' let's say, the authentic book-based narrative about what this thing is all about, turns into some kind of political propaganda pantomime horse.
And that is because there is a difference between 'writer,' and 'screenwriter.' The two things are not the same at all - and neither Purvis nor Wade are acknowledged writers with any real body of print work published beforehand.
A screenwriter is a visual logistics manager or documenting clerk. A writer deals with all kinds of ideas communicated in the first instance through words and language. And there are some ideas that have no visual image analogs to render the real sense of them. In films they require to be implied by scenes, images, and perhaps sound - and even then, they will rely on the audience having an ability to make the impressionistic leaps needed.
'Petrichor' has no direct visual analog. 'Aldehyde' hasn't either. Nor does 'louche;' at least not in the modern world.
Once you have the screenwriters also bringing their own personal private life biases into the stories which are not part of the real originator's 'canon,' you massively run the risk of losing the audience that made you rich in the first place who liked what was there when they were attracted to the product.
Len Deighton and Leslie Charteris were significant writers long before they worked on Bond films as screenwriters, even though they were both good screenwriters, especially so Charteris. They understood what today's Bond developers appear to have no clue about, which is that the Fleming stories do not revolve around the following:
Weird Characters
Location
Politics
Crazy Objective (of inverted 'protagonist' character; namely, the villain)
Anti-Protagonist (Bond)
Conflict caused by Bond blocking the objective
Car-chase
Violence and pain
Dangerous edges
Explosions
Bigger Explosions
Huge vast explosions
Credits and music
...What they revolve around I do know - but it would cost you a damn lot of money to get it from me!
You're on your own coughing up twenty bucks plus coke and popcorn money for the rubbish you will get from Eon and the two gay guys inclusive one heroin addict. Good luck.
Music is - Arnej 'People Come People Go' (Maor Levi Remix)
Leslie Charteris was never a Bond screenwriter.
ReplyDeleteMind you, apart from my screed answering your point, thanks for your comment. We have far too few comments around here! And I could be wrong too. ...I remember one time I was wrong and this horse I'd backed broke its leg just after it took the lead in the straight. And so it didn't win. And I was wrong.
DeleteNot going to argue on the point strongly because Charteris was a lot more reticent in his own life about his work as a Hollywood 'fixer-upper' of screenplays than the public realizes now - and Wikipedia (the world renowned Universal expert source on everything) doesn't say he worked officially on any Bond movie. As you know, Charteris was denied American permanent residency due to the Chinese Exclusion Act and he worked under cover on NUMEROUS projects because of that. He wrote for 'Mannix' and 'Chinatown' un-credited. Since my uncle James Hertford W. was his best friend, I can only go on what I personally know about him. McClory (Thunderball) was my father's second cousin and although Wiki doesn't either credit Deighton on Never Say Never Again OR the original Thunderball, McClory brought Deighton in on both and as you know, Harry Saltzman was the producer of most of Deighton's own movies. Charteris was the 'final fixer' screenplay writer both times as far as I'm aware. But uncredited. Not sure whether my uncle Glen Johnson is credited on Thunderball but as head of Shell Far East he certainly part-funded the bloody thing. So yeah. Dunno what facts we can use to establish what went on for sure. Charteris was certainly Roger Moore's screen-writer for forever and I suppose suddenly somehow someone else was when Moore became Bond...? Wiki entry on Tom Mankiewicz says 'Mankiewicz received sole writing credit on the next, Live and Let Die.' Why does it say that 'received...' 'sole...' Was he the sole writer or not? He was not, as far as I believe. Bond mythology and folklore, you see. Who am I to declare 'the truth?' I think Charteris was 100% a Bond screenplay writer. But if you have better sources and information, let's have them.
ReplyDeleteFor starters you should read an article entitled 'The James Bond Phenomenon' which Leslie wrote for Diplomat magazine and was later reprinted in The Saint Mystery Magazine. He discusses his views on Bond in depth and if you can imagine him being hired to work on a film after that, well you've a better imagination than I.
ReplyDeleteYou don't even have to study his life in much detail--go read the later collaborative Saint books which were published from the early Sixties onwards. He himself makes the point that he was pretty much retired from writing and just editing Saint books now.
There will be a detailed biography of him published soon.
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ReplyDeleteI don't know, my friend... 'The James Bond Phenomenon' by Charteris, that you refer to, is different to the James Bond Phenomenon by Dickerson and others who have used the same phrase down through the years. Charteris' 'The James Bond Phenomenon' (and I have read it, albeit god that was a while ago now) is A SHORT STORY! For me, I find that most people have an unclear understanding of the difference between 'writer' (who writes narrative fiction stories), and people who make screenplays. And as I have said recently, notwithstanding as you say 'a DETAILED (by whom, I wonder) 'biography' is to be published soon - my direct family, knew Charteris personally. As much as I hate to drop names and so on, I was a patient of his father's surgery when I was a small child!! My dad knew him (Charteris' father) very well. I think I've mentioned this slightly - it was on MY FATHER'S AUNT'S RUBBER ESTATE, that Charteris er... ...'worked.' Leslie Charteris worked on many major Hollywood SCREENPLAYS (8 inch/2 line pages) until he died, more or less. But that's only from personal knowledge so what would I know. I'm sixty-one. Young no doubt by comparison to many. I've worked in the industry myself. I worked with Jack Suriano (head of United Australasian and American Filmco) and John Picton-Warlow on 'The Year of Living Dangerously' starring Mel Gibson and S. Weaver. Won an Academy for Best Supporting, I think.
DeleteAnd btw, there's another guy here (who reads this blog) whose family has a similar background, in rubber estates and tea plantations - his connection, George Sewpershad, had an involvement with the tea estate next to my father's aunt's (estates). When you say 'Bond in depth' you realize, don't you, that even from the start, there was no single 'Bond' story writer albeit ILF did create the character's NAME. McClory and Whittingham wrote/devised Thunderball, and very possibly, Anna Rothermere (her relative is TODAY a tutor of my own kid) wrote 'The Spy Who Loved Me.' The true implication of my points all wrapped together is this: 'Bond' is a commission from the UK Secret Service out at Bedford Square 'front office' academia people, and they used all the Cantab literary people to do it: Harmsworth, Fleming (Reuters reporter), Charteris, and others from the US CIA, Whittingham and McClory being the obvious ones.
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ReplyDeleteYou're clearly going to believe what you want to believe. The fact is that Leslie's piece 'The James Bond Phenomenon' is not a short story. You can find it online. I suggest you go read it.
ReplyDeleteAnd if we must indulage in name-dropping my facts come from the man himself, whom I knew for several years.
Well don't just leave us hanging in suspenders, man - post a link to it. I would like to re-read after many decades! And any others following this to-and-fro might also like to read it.
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